A Positively Poetic Priest

St. John's Episcopal Church in Tallahassee has been standing in downtown Tallahassee since 1829. After wonderful years of active history, unfortunately their membership and active lay leadership started lagging. They were still living their faith in Jesus and being a presence in downtown Tallahassee, but people were not coming to church as they used to. People were not connecting to the real life and gifts of the community. That is, until they started learning about the principals of Invite Welcome Connect and started rethinking their hospitality and community connections. The rector of St. John's Tallahassee, the Rev. David Killeen, wrote in the Invite Welcome Connect book, "Connect is a particular area on which we needed to concentrate. I personally witnessed many of our newcomers leaving the party through the back door. They would be active for six months and then disappear. Through Invite Welcome Connect, we are much more intentional about ...

Many people when they reach a certain age start to feel like nothing can change. There isn't any point in setting any new goals, there isn't any reason to dream for anything different. Some people reach a state of despair or a state of indifference such that nothing really matters anymore. And really, this can happen at any age, however, it has become largely noticeable in the seventy and over age group these days. Despair can hit anyone who has struggled for a long time and feels like they are not attaining anything different or important. Working with people who have reached rock bottom can be hard to do. However, we all need a little encouragement some of the time. Our good friend, C. S. Lewis once said, “You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” Encouragement. Most people at some point in their lives find themselves an encouragement story or quote that they hang on to when the going gets rough. I remember the halls and walls of my middle schoo...